found - the podcast

Hamburg-based MuRay Tech, a spinoff from the DESY research centre, has raised €7.1M to see inside dense metal parts that X-rays can’t penetrate. The funding combines a €3.5M pre-seed round led by First Momentum Ventures and co-led by Caelora with €3.6M in non-dilutive public funding, including a Horizon Europe grant.

MuRay is building a laser-driven particle accelerator that makes muons on demand, so scans can run fast enough to use on the factory floor.

Co-founder and co-CEO Kristjan Põder spent nine years leading laser-plasma accelerator work at DESY. He joins us to explain what a muon is and why 3D-printed rocket engines and gas turbines are MuRay’s first market. He also covers how the same technology could scan shipping containers and, one day, allow CT scans at a fraction of today’s radiation dose.

We also discuss going from scientist to CEO, what a deep tech investor brings beyond capital, why Hamburg is a good place to build, and who MuRay is hiring.

---

Powered by Techniker Krankenkasse (TK)

Starting a company raises questions on social security: How do I stay insured as a founder? What do I need to know when I hire my first employees? Techniker Krankenkasse answers them on SocialPizza, its startup platform with articles, tips and checklists, and gives founders a free 15-minute consultation with one of its social security experts.

👉 https://socialpizza.tk.de

For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email: [email protected]

----

Chapters:

00:00 Intro
00:22 The €7.1M raise
00:55 What is a muon?
01:27 From DESY lab to startup
02:08 Cosmic muons vs. making your own
03:05 First market: 3D-printed rocket engines and gas turbines
04:07 Scanning shipping containers in Hamburg
04:31 Medical imaging at 10–100x lower dose
05:00 Where the money goes
05:54 From scientist to CEO
07:15 Working with First Momentum Ventures
08:01 Hamburg’s deep tech ecosystem
09:36 Who MuRay is hiring
10:25 Outro

Hamburg-based Uplift Ventures, backed by intralogistics group Jungheinrich, launched a few weeks ago its inaugural €100M fund for European deep tech. It will back up to 20 late-Seed and Series A startups across Physical AI, energy, enterprise AI and logistics, plus selected deep tech funds, mainly in Europe with a slice in the US.

Founding GP Christian Noske joins us to explain why so many breakthrough technologies stall at Series A, what he learned from building BMW i Ventures and Alliance Ventures and leading European investments at NGP Capital, and whether a fund backed by a single corporation can stay truly independent. We also discuss what Hamburg's industrial base means for deep tech founders, and what researchers should do before spinning out.

Chapters
00:00 Intro

01:00 Uplift Ventures and the €100M fund

03:00 Why late Seed and Series A is where deep tech gets stuck

04:30 How deep tech companies fail

06:00 Why invest in other deep tech funds?07:00 Europe vs. the US

08:30 Physical AI: real or hype?

11:00 Corporate capital: the good and the bad

12:30 How independent is Uplift from Jungheinrich?

14:00 Hamburg as a deep tech hub

15:30 Advice for researchers thinking of spinning out

17:00 From Bosch apprentice to VC

18:30 The founder story that stuck with him

19:30 Outro

Felix Leonhardt is Managing Partner at Oyster Bay Venture Capital, a Hamburg-based fund investing exclusively across the food and agriculture value chain.

Oyster Bay closed its second fund above €100 million with the European Investment Fund and KfW on board — one of the largest dedicated food-tech funds in Europe. Fund I ranked in the top 10% of European VC funds by performance, with a landmark early bet on Oatly, which IPO'd in 2021.

Felix's own path started on the other side of the table. He founded one of Europe's first social food businesses — purefood and its vegan brand lycka, which funded school meals in Africa through Welthungerhilfe.

He's also one of Germany's most-read VC voices on LinkedIn, writing on food-tech, AI, and the state of European venture capital.

In our in-depth conversation, we discuss:

🔹 Why food-tech is the most underpriced climate lever — a third of global emissions, yet only a sliver of climate VC

🔹 The Oatly case study: from a small Swedish brand to a $27B peak to under $400M — and why he thinks it's now undervalued

🔹 Why "building a love brand is extremely hard, but if you do it well, it's real value creation"

🔹 The storytelling gap in deep tech — how a Hamburg company has robots live with the US Army and nobody knows

🔹 Why VC is the wrong financing form for 90% of food companies — and what founders should raise instead

🔹 From frozen yoghurt flop to social-food pioneer to full-time investor — the founder journey behind the fund

Where to find Felix:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/felixleonhardt/
• Oyster Bay Venture Capital: https://www.oysterbay.vc/

Florian Birner is the co-founder and managing director of Planeteers, a Hamburg-based climate tech startup developing a scalable, end-to-end CO2 capture and storage solution based on accelerated natural limestone weathering — essentially speeding up a 1,000-year natural process into seconds, and releasing the result safely into rivers and oceans.

Before Planeteers, Florian trained as an electrical engineer at Bosch, moved into large-scale industrial plants at Linde Engineering, then co-founded and successfully exited a HealthTech startup — before promising himself, and his wife, never to do it again. Too many bottles of wine later, Planeteers was founded in December 2022.

In our in-depth conversation, we discuss:

🔹 From Bosch to HealthTech to CO2 capture — the winding road to Planeteers

🔹 How their plug-and-play reactor works, and why simplicity is their biggest competitive advantage

🔹 Why AI won't solve the climate crisis — "the physical molecule still needs to come out of the air"

🔹 The €40B addressable market hiding in plain sight across European industry

🔹 Tipping points, cascading effects, and staying optimistic as a climate tech founder

🔹 Winning the Hamburger Gründerpreis, securing EIC backing, and what's next for the Series A

Hope you enjoy episode 4. Links in comments down below.

Where to find Florian:

- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/florian-birner/

- Planeteers: https://planeteers.de/en/

Hamburg's climate tech & deep tech ecosystem

Florian name-drops several Hamburg-specific initiatives worth exploring.

- Hamburger Gründerpreis (the award Planeteers won): https://www.hamburger-gruenderpreis.de

- Hamburg Sustainability Conference: https://www.hamburg-sustainability-conference.de

- Impossible Founders (mentioned in the episode): https://www.impossible-founders.de

Where to find found:

- Newsletter: ⁠https://www.foundhamburg.com⁠

- Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/foundhamburg⁠

- Whatsapp community: https://chat.whatsapp.com/Frz6bNqYGkKG37dG4Z30uJ?mode=gi_t

- Kyrylo's LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyrylokorsun⁠

- Hugo's LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/hugopaquin⁠

For inquiries about sponsoring the found podcast, email ⁠[email protected]⁠

In this episode, we cover:

00:00 Intro

01:31 Meet Florian Birner & Planeteers

03:01 Founder journey: Bosch, Linde & a HealthTech exit

07:11 What Planeteers does: end-to-end carbon capture

11:17 The business model: plants + carbon credits

12:51 What's slowing climate tech from scaling

16:15 Do companies really put money where their mouth is?

19:04 Co-founder roles & lessons from past ventures

21:29 Project ELIX: the first real reactor

23:40 Europe's emissions & the market opportunity

25:20 Scaling solutions, red tape & getting founders in action

27:04 The scale of the problem: gigatons & tipping points

31:36 Geopolitics & global cooperation

34:33 EVs, China & the European industry dilemma

36:33 Staying optimistic: resilience as a founder

40:00 Wins from the last six months & the EIC grant

42:47 Support orgs & the Impossible Founders network

44:06 The Hamburg startup ecosystem

47:41 Wrap-up

Alina Klarner is the founding partner and GP of Impact Shakers Ventures, a €20M early-stage fund backing diverse founders tackling climate, social inclusion, and impact infrastructure across Europe.

Impact Shakers has invested in 25 startups across eight countries and catalysed nearly five times the capital it deployed through co-investors including General Catalyst, World Fund, and European family offices — all built on a flywheel of community and ecosystem building.

Before impact, Alina spent over a decade in private equity — which she then left in 2020 after investing a first £850 angel check to back five female founders. She never looked back.

In this episode, we also talk about:

🔹 Her definition of impact — systemic change rooted in lived experience, not chasing whatever wave is trending

🔹 "Impact or profit? Both. Always." — why she's tired of the false choice

🔹 The stealth gigafactory in Northern Germany that's profitable on a fraction of Northvolt's funding

🔹 Why she runs "a very strict no-assholes rule" now that the fund is her own

🔹 Why VC isn't the only path — grants, angels, revenue-based and steward-ownership funding are some of the many examples

Where to find Alina:

• LinkedIn:
• Impact Shakers:

Where to find found:

• Newsletter: https://www.foundhamburg.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/foundhamburg
• Kyrylo's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyrylokorsun
• Hugo's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hugopaquin

In this episode, we cover:

(00:00) Introduction to Alina Klarner & Impact Shakers

(02:08) From private equity to impact — the 2020 leap

(02:50) "Putting the first euro on the table is the hardest"

(03:31) Doing all the work while the PE guys made the decisions

(04:51) Meeting Yonca on LinkedIn & a year of "co-founder dating"

(05:32) How the fund works — the community-capital flywheel

(06:53) Defining impact: systemic change rooted in lived experience

(08:13) "Impact or profit? Both" — killing the false choice

(08:53) Is impact just a label that comes and goes?

(10:58) The state of impact in 2026 — "a phase of growing up"

(11:55) Hamburg's momentum & the new House of AI

(12:59) Community as a business lever, not just a nice-to-have

(14:21) How a remote fund builds real connection — retreats & residencies

(15:43) Why Spain — and the last three investments

(17:04) The European impact map: UK, Germany, Spain

(18:27) What makes her invest: "the people"

(19:07) "If you're not in it with your full heart, we won't invest"

(19:47) "Storytelling sounds very American" — the authenticity take

(21:08) 90% of European exits are under €100M

(21:48) A 16-year average time to exit — "that's insane"

(23:09) Why spraying money across 90% failures "doesn't sit right"

(23:49) "The goal is not VC funding. The goal is to build a business."

(24:45) Hamburg's ecosystem: emerging, ambitious, challenger

(25:53) Under-the-radar companies more people should know — Lignopure

(27:14) The stealth gigafactory vs. Northvolt

(29:57) Why every European country has its own impact specialism

(30:39) "A strict no-assholes rule"

(31:20) Impact Shakers' four-year plans & building the impact economy

(32:41) AI two ways: impact for AI and AI for impact

(35:26) Her #1 advice for impact founders

(42:19) Beyond VC: grants, angels & revenue-based funding

(43:45) "It's not a bad business — it's just not a match with VC"

Referenced:

• Humara — physics-based software for waste-plant design (Impact Shakers led the €1.2M seed)
• Lignopure — lignin as an alternative to fossil-based materials (https://www.lignopure.com)
• Katapult Future Festival (Amsterdam) & The Drop (Malmö) — her no-panels event picks (https://katapultfuturefest.com)
• House of AI Hamburghttps://www.house-of.ai/hamburg
• Zebra Investment Night https://hamburg.impacthub.net/zebra-investment-night/

For inquiries about sponsoring the found podcast, email [email protected]

Fenja Vespermann is the co-founder and CEO of mimikry AI — a Hamburg-based studio building custom AI pipelines for enterprise creative production. In less than a year, she's worked with Audi, Adidas, and Otto Group. Without raising a single euro.

Before mimikry, Fenja ran her own 3D animation agency. Then Corona hit, the studio closed, and she borrowed 15K from a friend to start over.

In this conversation we discuss:

🔹 How she landed Audi, Meta, and Otto Group as a one-year-old bootstrapped company

🔹 Why she refuses to raise — "scale the money, not the people"

🔹 Her contrarian thesis: there is no AI tool, AI is just a technology

🔹 The night her studio shut down and she called her mom to say "I have no idea what to do"

🔹 Being mistaken for the PM, not the CEO

Timestamps:

(00:00) Intro

(02:30) Why most enterprise AI deployments fail

(06:10) "There is no AI tool — AI is just a technology"

(08:00) Origin story: 3D animation, Corona, the studio shutting down

(10:00) Borrowing 15K and getting into Midjourney's beta

(17:00) Why standardizing client data is 40% of the work

(19:00) Landing Audi, Meta, Otto Group, BMW, and Replit in year one

(21:00) "Get over the cringe" — the go-to-market

(24:30) Europe vs America: speed and risk appetite

(28:30) Why Mimikry refuses to raise

(30:00) "Stay as small as possible. Scale the money, not the people."

(31:00) How an AI-native company actually works (ComfyUI, Claude Code)

(33:30) VibeCon NYC and the Replit installation

(40:40) Being a female CEO in a room full of men

Find Fenja: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fenjavespermann

Find mimikry AI: https://www.mimikry.ai

Check out found:

Newsletter: https://www.foundhamburg.com

Kyrylo: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyrylokorsun

Hugo: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hugopaquin

Iskender Dirik is a German entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and tech executive with 20 years of experience in the digital world.

He founded his first company at the age of 21 and built and exited a couple of tech startups afterwards. He is a prolific angel investor with dozens of investments, including in German AI unicorn Parloa. He led a €100M CVC Fund at Bauer Venture Partners and is currently a venture partner at leading European VC Earlybird. He also founded and led ‘’Microsoft ScaleUp" in Berlin and led Europe for Samsung NEXT, Samsung’s global startup and innovation unit, and was the head of Wix Germany.

Besides his enthusiasm for tech, Iskender is also known for being a design-lover and creative mind. He is a regular content writer and contributor and known for publishing thought-leadership articles around AI, technology, startups, venture capital, impactful presentations, marketing and leadership principles.

—

In this episode, we discuss:

🔹 How he knew within 2 minutes that the founder of German AI unicorn Parloa was special

🔹 From humble beginnings in a Turkish household in Wilhelmsburg to building and selling multiple tech businesses

🔹 Going from being an extreme introvert to pitching in front of thousands at OMR

🔹 The rise of storymaxxxing and the importance of style and sending the right signals in business

🔹 Co-founding 2hearts, Germany’s largest tech community for people from immigration background

—

Where to find Iskender:

• LinkedIn: /iskenderdirik

• Website: id.vc
• DealMacher Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/4Th7rV4JGpGdKEn839KIMq

—

Links to found Hamburg:

• Newsletter: https://www.foundhamburg.com/

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/foundhamburg/

Hugo’s LinkedIn: /hugopaquin

Kyrylo’s LinkedIn: /kyrylokorsun

—

Referenced:

• Iskender’s LinkedIn post about the classic business outfit: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7419670877237133312/
• His website where he whimsically lists all the mispronunciations of his name: iamiskender.com
• 2hearts: www.2heartscommunity.com